A LITTLE BUMP or IS IT A HUMP?
By Mike Stella

When your Lionel Postwar collection begins to number in the tens of thousands of pieces and you start to think you have just about everything you begin to look for those little obscure variations that never meant that much before but now are about the only thing left to obtain.

Such was the case for a #2033 Alco Union Pacific AA set. I've had my set for my collection for over 25 years and even purchased a one-owner set years later as a second set but both pairs of AAs were the early version and I've always kept one eye opened at train meets, etc., for the later version.

I recently obtained the later version as a complete set and when I gave it to a friend that cleans and repairs Lionel trains. He stated it was the smoothest running Lionel locomotive he had ever encountered. When I ran it on my home railroad I had to agree.

If you collect early Lionel Alcos you may encounter some that look like they are warped or even melted but the truth is that it is inherent in the design of the mold that some of the Alco shells tend to look pretty weird. Lionel produced all the early Alcos this way (Variation #1) but sometime in 1952 they modified the mold where the injection took place and added a dime size hump that corrected the problem and created our second variation.

The #2031 Rock Island, the #2032 Erie, and the #2033 Union Pacific all come in both variations. Most pricing books will state there is no difference in value and most collectors might agree. You be the judge.

It took me many years of casual looking to find my #2033 with the humps and I think it adds to having a more "complete" Lionel collection.